ILOILO CITY — More than 600 participants gathered in this city on Tuesday for the “E-Power Mo” forum of the Department of Energy (DOE), which is aimed to empower individual consumers through informed energy plans and policies.
In a press conference, DOE Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella underscored the need to strengthen their collaboration with the stakeholders in conserving energy.
“We are inviting our consumers to embrace this energy efficient lifestyle and to be more aware of handling energy supplies,” he said.
Fuentebella said the “E-Power Mo” is one of the four tenets that summarizes the policy agenda of the current administration. He introduced three others, which include “E-Safety”, “E-Secure”, and “E-Diskarte”.
He said President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Executive Order No. 30 creating the energy investment coordinating council in order to streamline the regulatory procedures affecting energy projects.
“It assures that all energy projects of national significance will be fast tracked,” he said.
One of these is the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which will be realized by December 2020, he said.
The project will allow the two islands to share excess supply of power and reserve capacity.
“The system will be robust because you now have more power plants in the Mindanao area that can share power to the Visayas,” he said.
Meantime, Fuentebella said the participants of the forum are grouped in six for the breakout sessions so they will be more informed of the energy plans and policies of the government.
These include downstream oil and natural gas sectors; upstream sector; renewable energy sector; power energy sector; alternative fuels and energy efficiency sector; and consumer sector.
Prior the sessions, the Philippine Energy Plan 2017-2040 has been presented among the participants, effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law on the energy sector and establishing the National Position on Nuclear Power in the Philippines.
Fuentebella hoped the participants will become knowledgeable of the energy plans of the government to contribute ideas on how to further improve the energy sector of the country.
The one-day forum here was the seventh leg of nationwide “E-Power Mo”.
The participants were composed of representatives from the government line agencies, non-government organizations, senior citizens, academe, youth, among others.
The next forum will be conducted in Cagayan de Oro City. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
